There's a new girl in town
by slashwriter95
Summary: Adventure gets spicy for the L4D crew when someone new joins the group after saving them from a tough situation.    Pairing: OC/Ellis, hint of OC/Nick, hint of Coach/Rochelle  Rating: M for language
1. Credit

*Credits: Valve Company

Chapter 1 was based on The Parish campaign. (L4D2)

Chapters 2 and 3 was based on the No Mercy campaign. (L4D)

All infected and survivors' names based on L4D2. (Except for Jo-my alter ego)*


	2. Chapter 1

NICK POV

We're all here on this dock, Rochelle, Coach, Ellis and I. We made it pretty far, but we're not done...yet. With my gun in hands, my machete packed on my back, and my health pack by my side, I set out with the group to encounter these sons of bitches. We've been slaughtering these dead bastards since about a month ago. It also doesn't help that I've been paired up with these losers. Although, they have been a bit helpful, so I shouldn't complain too much. Yes, even Ellis. Anyway, once I spotted these infected, I was about to shoot them until my concentration was interrupted. This always happens right before we start fighting.

"Did I ever tell you about the time my buddy Keith tried to-"

"Ellis! We really don't have time for that right now!" I yelled at him as soft as my voice could let me. Focusing on that infected, I pulled the trigger. I hit him perfectly in the chest, knocking him back. Unfortunately, my luck changed when he landed on a car with an alarm. It went off, and the scream of a horde was heard.

"And I'm the idiot." Ellis gave me a look. I switched to my machete, firmly in my hands, and I braced myself for the worse.

"Just fucking brace yourselves." I spat at him. It didn't take long for the giant group of zombies to come running all at once. Slashing all that came close to me, all four of us ran through them to get to the other side of the street. Finally slaying off the horde, we shot our way through passageways, eliminating 2 smokers, 2 boomers, and 3 spitters in the process. "We are kicking ass!" I screamed triumphantly as I continued to slash my way through common infected. It wasn't until I heard Ellis screaming from far behind. Quickly running back, I saw him getting ripped apart by a hunter. Cocking my gun, I attempted to fire at the hooded creature until another shot was heard. The hunter howled in pain and collapsed on top of Ellis. Turning around, I saw Coach and Rochelle behind me, staring at what just happened. "Did you shoot the hunter?" I asked them. They shook their heads, making the same confused facial expression. "Well then who shot it?" There was absolute silence as Ellis slowly got up and slightly limped to us.

"Ellis, who killed that hunter?" Rochelle asked him.

"I saw a glimpse of the person. I think he was immune. He would've killed me if he wasn't...right?" We all shrugged and kept a look-out. If its a zombie with a gun, we're good as fucked. Darting into the safe-room, I heard...a voice. More specifically, the voice of someone singing. Who would be singing in a zombie apocalypse? Other than Ellis, I mean. Thinking it could be a psychologically messed up Witch, I closed the door and we prepared for the Park.

Busting the door open with my foot, I jump out into the large group of zombies, shooting rapidly at each one that got too close to me. The other three stayed behind me, killing other infected from farther away. We ran to the park, where there were more hordes. I remember grabbing a pipe bomb earlier. Saving some time, I threw it, causing them to run to the blinking, metallic object.

"Why exactly do they follow after it anyway?" Ellis asked while we ran.

"Because they're stupid, dead pieces of fuck, that's why!" I replied back, running away from the horde around it. We cut through the park and entered the parking lot, which were covered with bodies upon bodies. Slashing a horde that was coming at us, I screamed in triumph as each individual head got cut off their bodies. Although, to my anger, nobody else helped me. The other three just stared at me, slaying zombie after zombie. It wasn't until a smoker began strangling me did they help. "Well, thank you guys for finally helping me out." I patted my white suit...or tan suit until Coach took a small shot to my arm.

"I had just enough of your attitude, Nick." He had a dark look in his eyes.

"Coach!" Ellis jumped in front of him. "We may wanna kill the crap outta Nick, but we can't right now."

"Thank you!" I exclaimed as I clutched my right arm.

"We'll kill him after the apocalypse." He joked.

"I swear to God, if you guys shoot me again, or try to kill me, you will be picking your teeth up off the floor!"

"Not if you're dead." Coach smirked.

"Guys! Nobody's killing anyone except the zombies, okay? C'mon! We gotta get out of this place!" Rochelle yelled over our fighting. Suddenly, everything went quiet. Knowing that something was gonna happen, I patched up my arm, ready to fight. Rumbles were heard in the distance. The others and I got our guns ready as the rumbles got louder and louder. Then, a Tank busted through the wall. Getting back, we attempted to shoot the shit outta that thing, but that ended quickly. The Tank was smart; he serpentined around our range of fire, incapacitating us individually in the process. Screaming for help, (like we had any choice) we continued shooting on it, but it was pointless. Our pistols were useless. We were rapidly losing blood, and we were gonna die in the hands of a big, stupid, hideously-muscular bastard. Lovely; I've always wanted to die this way. As I was about to pass out, due to lack of blood, I saw a figure with something that looked like a grenade launcher suddenly jump in front of me. Everything was blurry and I only heard the sounds of explosions before I was officially out cold.

I woke up in what looked like a safe-house, with my jacket on top of me. I looked around to see Ellis and Coach with something on them too. They looked like blankets. Meh...whatever, I like my white...tan suit. The two seemed to be unconscious still. Then it occurred to me,

"Where's Rochelle?" In the corner, I saw the figure over her body, singing that same song I heard earlier at the Waterfront. Stirring, I sat up. "Who are you?" The figure turned around. It was fairly dark in the room, so I still couldn't see who it was.

"Oh good, you're up! Don't be alarmed, I'm an immune."

"What happened? Who are you?" The figure moved closer to me until the light from the safe-house door shone on her.

"I'm Josephine...or Jo and I just saved your ass from the Tank." I was almost speechless. She looked about 27, her hair was in a tight black and green-dyed braid down to her hips, her eyes glowed blue fires of determination, her slim body had black form-fitting clothes from head-to-boot, and she was carrying many different guns on her back, a health-pack, adrenaline, pills, and a pipe-bomb. My god, she's like the feminine version of Ellis. I slowly got up, holding out a hand.

"I'm nick." Shaking hands, she replied,

"well Nick...I believe you have something to say to me for patching you up and carrying you, along with the other three, to safety, all while fighting off zombies."

"Yeah. Thanks. But did you have to bring him?" I pointed at Ellis. She put her hands on her hips, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Are you saying that I should have just left an immune dead for the zombies to pick at? Nick, you are truly an idiot." My eye twitched.

"I was only kidding."

"Well its not funny. We gotta re-populate the Earth after this goddamn apocalypse and we already have one girl down. We don't want a guy to die too." I looked at Rochelle in the corner, then back at Jo.

"She's dead?"

"Sadly, yep. I even tried the chest paddles. She's gone, man." I stared at the corpse in the corner.

"Shit, Rochelle. You were tough."

"But the other two are fine. Hopefully, they'll be waking up soon." She fixed their blankets, then went back to Rochelle. She placed a new blanket over her body, and prayed. Feeling a little awkward, I went to pick up my jacket from the floor and dusted it off, but really, what was the point? I put my dirt and blood-stained jacket on when the other two began to stir. "Looks like everyone's waking up now." She smiled, turning on a light. Ellis rubbed his eyes and looked at Jo with what looked like...infatuation.

"Guys! This is the person who saved me from that hunter!" He yelled with excitement.

"And the Tank. I'm Jo by the way."

"I'm Ellis. Sorry for thinking that you were a guy earlier." He still had that stupid smile on his face. Jo just laughed.

"You know, I actually get that a lot. People say I'm tough like one."

"I'm Coach." Coach interrupted as he got up, shaking her hand. He then looked around until he finally asked, "where's Rochelle?" She moved aside, revealing a large bundle of blankets in the corner. The look on Coach's face was of horror and ultimate sadness. "No...Rochelle?" He slowly walked over to the covered corpse then fell to his knees. Paying respects, we stood quietly, bowing our heads. The silence was broken by the sobs of the older man. Ellis, being his caring self, as he always is, walked over to Coach, patting his back.

"She dun' well, Coach." In the corner of my eye, I saw his shoulders move up and down during each deep sigh.

"I'm good, I'm good." He got up, sniffed, and turned to us. To our surprise, he didn't look like he was sobbing. Jo clapped her hands together.

"So...right now, we are at the Quarter safe-house."

"That far?" Ellis asked her. "Man, you are one tough bad-ass!" He had to compliment her?

"Just doing my job, Ellis." She winked at him.

"So that means we have to get to the next safe-house, which then leads to the bridge."

"Sounds good to me. Let's kill these bitches!" Coach sounded pumped, but his eyes also spoke revenge. It was a bit creepy...even Ellis caught on and slowly moved away from him a bit.

"So, lets go! Everyone grab your shit and lets move!" I yelled, feeling my own adrenaline rush coming on. Then, I heard a giggle. I turned around to find it was Jo. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing. It's just by the way you're acting, you look like a grown man acting like a 5 year old." It didn't take long for Ellis to bust out laughing with her.

"That's what he calls me!" He howled. I scowled at them as I opened up the safe-house door.

"Let's just go, please?" I gestured Jo to go first. She went out, followed by Ellis, then Coach. Before I left though, I took a quick glimpse at Rochelle's covered-up corpse, sighed, and closed the door. We cut through small doorways, avoiding many zombies as best we could. We eventually reached the ledge that led to a small alleyway. Shooting down all the common infected, we jumped from ledge to ledge. Some even climbed up, but they were quickly shot by Jo. Damn, when that woman fights, she doesn't fuck around. I even spotted a smoker, but right before I even prepared my gun for fire, she sniped it's ass instantly. "Wow, Jo. How did you learn to shoot so well?"

"Years of practice, boy." I twitched when she called me boy. "People thought I was insane because they didn't think there would be a zombie apocalypse, but now they're dead and I'm the one alive, doing the killing." Inside, I wanted to laugh my ass off. Ellis believed in this shit too! Of course I didn't! She really is the feminine version of Ellis.

"You know, I bet you and Ellis could get along quite well. You both seem to have a lot in common." She looked behind her to see him talking to Coach. Looks like he was still comforting him about the whole Rochelle thing.

"Meh. He's not bad looking. And that Southern Accent! Oh God!" I was taken off guard because one, I couldn't believe this badass chick was fan-girling over Ellis and two, I didn't expect her to take me so seriously. Then, she shook her head. "But first, we must get through this. If my mind gets side-tracked, we won't make it out of here."

"What do you mean we won't make it out of here? You think we can't fight on our own?" I said insulted, killing off more infected climbing up to the ledge.

"Tank." She said, in a 'remember?' voice. I felt wiped. She was driving me insane. She's a woman alright.

"Fine, but we still need to get the hell outta here. Hey Ellis, Coach! Let's get a move-on!" The two looked at me with glaring eyes. "What the fuck did I do? Do you wanna live or not?" Sighing, the two caught up with us and we forged on. After more moving, we got to another ledge where a tractor and float was parked on the other side.

"We have to move that tractor." Jo said. "We can use the float to get across this ledge." She was pointing to part of the ledge that had a break in it.

"Well, Ellis!" Nick clapped his hands together. "Would you like to use your Hillbilly skills and drive the tractor for us?"

"Fuck you, Nick." He snapped.

"Seriously, Ellis. Can you drive the tractor while we kill off the infected?" Jo asked him sweetly to lighten up the mood.

"Sure I can." He smiled and raced down quietly go get to the tractor. The rest of us stayed by the gap, prepared to kill off any hordes that could be coming.

"By the way, Nick. You really do need to be a little nicer to your buddies." I cursed myself under my breath.

"You're right. Sorry."

"Don't tell me sorry." She said as she hinted Ellis with her head. Sighing, I looked out for the hordes. Ellis started up the tractor and a roar from many infected throats were heard. They're not that slow...for zombies. Instantly, they were hopping over the tall fence behind the float and we began shooting them down. Ellis drove the tractor as fast as he could, but the float it was pulling wasn't helping at all. On top of that, it didn't take too long before more and more hordes came and we couldn't handle the massive number of zombies. Ellis was almost there, until some of the infected started attacking him. With a pistol in his hand, he shot the scum-bags off of him as he continued to drive. Ellis was still having some trouble though, due to the large amount of zombies attacking the vehicle and float. Suddenly, I could see the determination flaming in Jo's eyes. She leaped off the ledge, into the one big tree in the middle of the area and began sniping every single zombie. Usually, sniping a great number of infected like this would be impossible to do quickly, but she was able to hit them all in a record of 5 minutes and thanks to Jo's convenient shooting, Ellis made it to the gap.

"The ledge is fixed! Let's go!" Ellis cried from the tractor. Coach and I crossed and waited on the other side as Jo jumped down from the tree to join Ellis. "Thanks for savin' my ass."

"No problem." I saw how she smiled at him, all 'crushy' and 'flirty'. "C'mon, we're almost to the bridge!" She called as they caught up to us. We continued passing by alleyways until we made it to the bridge safe-house entrance, but our advances were halted when typically, a Tank appeared from inside it.

"Mother fucker! These things are really annoying!" I screamed, shooting like hell at it. I kept on firing until I was cornered. Bracing myself for a giant strike, I smirked at it. I'm never gonna look scared, even if I'm close to seeing the face of death. Then, an explosion came, hitting the Tank on it's back, knocking it down. As it fell on top of me, I saw Jo with a grenade launcher.

"And that's why its not a bad idea to carry multiple weapons at once!" She grinned in triumph. My God, she's just like Ellis! I wiggled out of the steroid-inhaling mutant, wiping some blood off my white...tan...red suit. Goddammit this suit is getting fucked up! $3,000 down the drain! I looked at Jo, who was blowing on the smoky end of her grenade launcher.

"Thanks." I gave her a small smirk.

"Yeah. No problem."

"C'mon guys, let's get to that safe-house!" Coach yelled as we all filed into the room.

Inside the safe-house, we were healing up, filling up on ammo, and grabbing whatever we might need until a crash was heard and debris fell from the ceiling.

"What the hell?" I screamed when the pieces of ceiling fell at my feet.

"This is no Tank." Jo said, opening the safe-house door. She saw a fighter jet in the distance. "I knew it." She turned back around to us.

"Well? What is it?" Coach asked frantically.

"A bomb. Fighter jets are bombing us. CEDA doesn't know we're here."

"It could be the zombies." I said sarcastically.

"Well, what should we do?" Ellis said, ignoring me.

"I think I saw a radio outside. I'll see if I can contact them." Since there were no infected, it was easier to use the radio without having to blow any brains out. "Hello? This is the bridge! Anyone here? Please pick up!" Static. A voice came on. What luck.

"Hello? Bridge? How many are with you and are you immune?"

"There's me and 3 others and hell yeah, we're all immune! Anyway, we need rescue because we're fighting off all these things and now you're bombing us!"

"Yes, we understand. We'll send a chopper on the other side, but if you don't get there within the next 10 minutes, we're bombing this bridge!"

"Why can't you just bring the chopper here?" Static. "Hello? Dumbass!" More static. "Shit! We gotta cross the bridge and get to the chopper within the next 10 minutes!"

"Why can't they just pick us up over here?" I asked her, irritable.

"Because they're pricks. Anyway, let's lower the bridge because I don't know about you, but I wanna get across it!"

"Oh, and we don't?" I smirked, lowering the bridge. She flipped me off in response. As soon as the bridge lowered, I waited for Ellis to say something before we started running. Surely, he did.

"You know, my buddy Keith and I were on a bridge once, and we-"

"Overalls! We don't have time for this right now! We never do!"

"Quit calling me Overalls, you sleazy conman!"

"Thank you." I smirked at him as I forged on. Jo shook her head, following me. Coach and Ellis caught up to us when they saw us start attacking. "They just never stop coming!" I screamed as I attacked more and more infected, one after the next.

"Well, at this rate, we're never gonna make it in 10 minutes. Unless we get these out." She grinned with triumph as she took out an axe. Smiling just as big, I took out my machete. The other two also took out their melee weapons: a katana and a frying pan.

"Really Coach? A frying pan?"

"Better this than nothin'." He shrugged.

"Ready?" She asked us. We all braced ourselves, and nodded. Then we charged, slaying, hitting, and slashing our way through hundreds of infected. It was like a blood fest, lots of red liquid squirting on us and our weapons. We got up to the middle of the bridge where part of it was completely broken. No infected were found. It was deserted, there were no sounds. It was completely destroyed and empty. Or so we thought. To my surprise, rage, and slight terror, 2 Tanks jumped down from the broken part of bridge. Switching to our guns and grenade launchers, we fought without hesitation. The first one took a blow to the explosion of Jo's grenade launcher, knocking it back and making it fall into the giant break in the bridge. One down. Unfortunately, the second Tank did not fall from the blows like the first one and we ran out of grenades. We had no choice but to get back, shooting with normal guns. The Tank charged, knocking down Coach and Ellis. Acting fast, Jo tried moving to a higher ground. Although that attempt failed as the Tank grabbed her by the leg, and sent her flying into a nearby car. It was the first time we ever saw her fail to kill one of these things. Shocked by what just happened, I took out a molotov and was about to throw it out of panic until he knocked it out of my hand and pummeled me down. I thought it was the end, that we were finished, until I saw the molotov I dropped fly over my head. It hit the Tank and it burst into flame as I watched the mighty beast fall into a big blob of muscle. I turned around as best I could to find Ellis behind me, struggling to stand. He looked pretty banged up.

"That one's for Jo, you big, fleshy piece of fuck." He said with a dark look.

"Thanks, Ellis. You saved my ass." He just continued to stare at me with that dirty look. "Well...aren't you gonna help me?"

"Why should I?" Ellis' eyes narrowed more.

"Because you're a friend?" I tried to smile 'cute'. He just scoffed at my expression and began to heal himself.

"Right, because you've been so nice and helpful." He spat at me as he wrapped bandages around the injured parts of his body. I sighed with exasperation.

"Fine. I'm sorry."

"Your apology is fake, just like you."

"Fine. Ya know what, I don't care anymore." I sighed deeply. "I like Jo, okay?" Embarrassed, I turned my head. I just sounded like a pre-pubescent girl with a stupid fan-girl crush. I could feel Ellis' stare on me. "I guess...when I see you and Jo...you both look at each other...it doesn't matter."

"You...you're jealous. You're actually jealous of me?" He said in disbelief.

"Yes." I rolled my eyes. "So, I'm truly sorry, okay? It doesn't even matter anymore because she likes you. And for me to try to take her away from you...its just not fair...to you. I had a wife, an ex-wife actually. Now she is gone. You haven't had someone to really love and i'm not gonna take that away from you." That was a lie. I never really loved her. If anything, she was annoying.

"Maybe I am better off without Jo." I thought to myself, thinking of all the annoying times my ex-wife nagged me and yelled at me for always going to the casinos. God, she was annoying. But why tell that to Ellis? This was a 'happily-ever-after' moment for him.

"Oh Nick." I heard Ellis' tone change in his voice from disdain to touched. Suddenly, I felt him pull me up from under my arms, treating my wounds. "You are a good friend. Sorry about all that shit before."

"Meh. It's not you, buddy. Now, let's go! I'm tired of fighting these goddamn dead things." He patted me on the back.

"Right behind you, buddy. But first, let's get the other two up." Looking back at a very disgruntled Coach, and passed-out Jo on the hood of a car, I nodded in agreement.

- - On the chopper - - -

We made it to the chopper just in time, zombies banging on the closed door as it took off. Ellis and Coach laid Jo down on two seats as I sat behind her, examining my wounds.

"Well, we made it!" Ellis cheered.

"Hell to the yeah!" Coach exclaimed.

"I'm starting to like you guys." I smirked.

"Wow, Nick." Coach said with a sly grin. "That's the first time I ever heard you compliment any of us." I shrugged.

"Maybe I'm warming up to you guys." I shrugged. In the corner of my eye, I could see Coach smiling at me. Just then, Jo began to stir.

"She's waking up!" Ellis exclaimed, kneeling by her.

"Nnnhh...Goddamn it. My head." She sat up slowly, rubbing it, looking around. "Did we make it?" She asked Ellis, her eyes lighting up.

"Yes, Jo. We made it." He smiled.

"Y'know Jo, Ellis carried you all the way to the chopper. And we made up with Nick."

"Really?" She said, with surprise and gratitude. Ellis nodded with a shy smile. "Thank you." I could see, even from sitting behind her, that she was starting to turn red. Without another second passing, Ellis learned in to kiss her, but then stopped and looked down. She sighed. "You don't need to hesitate or be shy." She said, lifting up his chin and finishing what he tried to begin. I could sense the shock in Ellis' body when their lips touched and when they broke, they looked into each other's eyes. It was love. Real, true love. Not the love I experienced. I turned my head to hide a tear that was creeping out from the corner of my left eye.

"Nick?" Coach looked at me. I kept the left side of my face hidden.

"Yeah? What?" I asked him sternly.

"Are you alright?" Then, I saw Ellis and Jo turn to look at me too. Thinking fast, I yawned to pretend that my eye was watering due to drowsiness.

"Yeah." I rubbed my eye, staring at the three. "I'm just a bit tired, is all. Just dozing off in a daze." I saw Ellis looking at me, with eyes of knowledge. He was mouthing something to me:

"You're not alone."

"That's right. I'm not alone." I thought to myself, "I don't know if I'll find someone, especially now in this goddamn zombie apocalypse, but I guess I'll be fine with these three by my side."

"You know what?" I finally said to the group. "I think I will take a nap." Ellis winked at me and I couldn't help but smile.

"I think I'll rest too." Coach said, getting comfortable in the chair next to me.

"Why don't we all rest? We've been fightin' those infected for a while. We all deserve a break." Ellis looked at Jo. She nodded in agreement, moving as close as she can get to the two chairs that were supporting her torso and legs. Ellis moved up on the two chairs, laying down and wrapping his arms around her. It looked pretty uncomfortable, but considering they're both quite skinny and in love, I think they'll manage. I shifted in my seat a bit, getting comfortable, and closed my eyes.


	3. Chapter 2

JO POV

I stretched, waking up from a nice, long sleep. I turned so that I could see my fiancée sleeping next to me. Yes, my fiancée. Who is he? I'll give you a hint: He has an adorable Southern accent. Yep! Ellis. I wrapped my arms around his sleeping body, burying my head on his bare, toned chest. I listened to his heart, steadily beating as he breathed peacefully. Then, he began to groan softly, waking up slowly.

"Good morning." I said, sweetly. He yawned and stretched, careful not to hit me in the face.

"Good mornin'." He smiled, looking at my tired, yet refreshed face. "Slept well?"

"Yep." I pecked his lips, unwrapping my arms from his waist and rolled out of bed. Yes, a bed. We're actually living in a legitimate house. You must be asking yourself, 'how could we be living happily in a perfectly-built house during a zombie apocalypse?' Well, it happened about two weeks ago with just a little luck.

"We're gonna crash!" Coach screamed as the pilot collapsed to the floor with a bullet in his head. Nick blew the smoking barrel of his pistol and put it away. "What the hell was that for, Nick? You shot our damn pilot!"

"He was an infected. Would you rather have your brains eaten?"

"Well, either way, we're dead now!" Coach attempted to pounce on Nick when Ellis pushed him back.

"Calm down!" I screamed, giving everyone a parachute. "Take this and jump!"

"But Jo, we don't know where-" Nick spoke.

"Do you wanna die?" I screamed at him, putting mine on.

"No, but-"

"Oh, just go!" I pushed him off the plane.

"What the fuck? You idiot!" He screamed while falling. Coach was the next to jump, followed by Ellis and I. As we fell, we held each other's hand, hoping for a safe landing. I watched the plane rapidly nosedive until it crashed onto a giant patch of land. I turned my head away from the bright explosion, watching dome flaming metal parts of plane fly right past us. We were lucky none hit us.

"Guys! Pull your strings now!" I screamed as loud as I could once we were close to the ground. And to our luck, we landed in a rural area with a big farmhouse.

And that's where we are today. Nick lives on the main floor, in his own little bachelor pad. I'm sort of afraid to go down there, due to the fact that I saw him move leopard-print furniture and other awkward bachelor shit down there. Coach lives in the basement. His room is right next to the kitchen, so he is quite content. he also has a whole bunch of football stuff in there: trophies, jerseys, and other things like that. I also remember helping him put up a giant poster of his favorite football star...he sometimes talks to it...its kinda creepy. I don't know how they found all this stuff either, but I'd rather not ask. As for Ellis and I, we live in a small room on the second floor. The only thing that we need is a bed and each other. *Wink* ...well, maybe some guns too. There's a barn by the house where we store them. We even turned the inside into a shooting range. Its a good way to bond and practice our shooting together. On occasion, some infected come to visit, but we just shoot them down and move the bodies into the woods. It's a simple life, when you really break it down. *Looks at a diamond ring on finger* I love Ellis, even though we've only known each other for a short time, but we had a real connection. Both of us. Besides, its a zombie apocalypse! Speaking of which, I sort of dread the idea of having to repopulate the Earth. I'm not saying I don't want to be a mother, and I'm definitely not saying I don't want to bear Ellis' children, but I don't want to have a shit ton of kids...and if I have to repopulate the Earth, I'm gonna have to fuck the other guys too...yeah, I don't think Ellis would like it very much either. I just pray that they come out with some kind of cure for this goddamn infection before then. I still remember how he proposed to me after we got settled into the house.

"Jo? How long have we've been seeing each other?" He asks me as we walked around our large farmland.

"For about...3 weeks or so. Why?"

"I feel like I've known you my whole life!" he says, holding my hand.

"Me too." I squeezed it tightly.

"And I want, no, need to have a badass, beautiful woman by my side in this terrible apocalypse!"

"Well, I'm here." I said, pecking his cheek.

"Good to know because I don't ever want to lose you.

"What? And I don't? Oh Ellis, you're not the only one with feelings in the relationship." I teased him and he laughed at my sarcasm.

"Yes, I know." He then stopped walking and I turned around to see why. "Jo, I may be the craziest person to do this, especially right now, but..." he got down on one knee, pulling a diamond ring out of his pocket. "...will you please marry me?" To be honest, I sort of expected it coming, but I was still surprised.

"Of course, Ellis! No need to ask." I smiled at him. He instantly got up, jumping and 'yee-hawing' in excitement. My Southern man...my beautiful Southern man. He slipped the ring on my finger, which fit perfectly. Then reality hit me. "Hey Ellis, where did you get this ring?"

"I found it in the house, but ring or no ring, I was still gonna marry you. My alternative was this." He held up a rubber band and I laughed. I actually imagined him trying to tie it around my finger.

"Well, it was a good thing you found it then. And by luck, it fits perfectly!" I look at the ring in all it's 14 karat gold glory, examining the one big diamond in the center. "Its beautiful, Ellis." I wrapped my arms around his neck, giving him a long, passionate kiss. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me in. Then, for a second, he broke the kiss.

"I don't know how its gonna be made official though."

"It doesn't matter. I'm just happy to be here with you."

So yeah, here I am, engaged during a zombie apocalypse, living with three men. Suddenly, I heard a rupture and the ground shook.

"Ellis?" I ask him, feeling anxious. He read my mind.

"There hasn't been no Tank 'round here for a while. Let's just go downstairs." Just then, Nick and Coach busted through our door.

"Did you hear that?" Coach panicked.

"Forget hear. Did you feel it?" I looked at Ellis with eyes that read, 'I told you so.'

"Alright, then let's beat him down like we always do!" Ellis said in response to my look.

"What happened to 'Oh, let's just ignore that rumble and go downstairs', Ellis?" I put my hand on my hip, raising my eyebrow.

"Well, now that the others have heard it, I guess there is a Tank around. And I only told you to ignore it because you tend to overreact. Remember last time we heard a rumble and you freaked out but it was only the refrigerator?"

"Shut up. That was right after I got thrown into a car by an ass-hole Tank! I have a right to be anxious!" I hit him playfully, yelling a bit. But it wasn't an angry yell, just loud. I'm like that sometimes.

"I would just love to watch this adorable argument go on and on, but we've got some kind of infected here. So, I'd like to kill it." Nick interrupted.

"Oh, shut up!" We both said simultaneously and gave each other a small kiss.

"My God, they're like one of those obsessed couples!" Nick sighed in exasperation as he walked out of the room. "I'm going to the barn. The rest of you can get beaten up." Nick rushed out the door. We looked at Coach, who was rubbing his bald head.

"Uhh, guys...we should probably stop this thing before it attacks us." Coach awkwardly interrupted our kissing. Feeling slightly embarrassed, I took Ellis by the hand and Coach followed us out to the barn. After sneaking into the small, red house and catching up to Nick, we came out fully loaded with the most toughest weapons in our stash. Keeping our eyes locked on our target, we fired. My heart pounded as every bullet shot out of my heavy-loaded weapon. Red-colored trails of liquid gushed out from where bullet met flesh. The rumbles and loud thumps sounded as the Tank's muscled body hit the flat ground, charging towards us. We all dodged out of the way except for one, who just wasn't fast enough. The Tank blocked his body, so I was unable to see who got hit. Feeling my own adrenaline rush picking up, I bashed the back of the Tank with the end of my machine gun, getting his attention. It worked. I ran as quickly as I could, but nobody was shooting. Instead, the other two were tending to whoever got incapped. The Tank charged with full force, pounding the ground and raging after me. I could tell when he was a human, he must have had anger issues. I ran up to the farmhouse, then made a sudden turn, causing the Tank to crash into the side of the house. It broke down the whole left side, but I had no choice. The Tank was dizzy from the impact, so taking my chance, I fired like crazy at it's chest and head. The mighty beast dropped to it's knees, collapsing into a motionless mound of squishy flesh. I blew on my smoking barrel, feeling victorious for what I've just done. I turned around to gloat to the guys until I saw them huddled over the incapped man. As I ran closer to the group, my heart sunk more and his body became clearer to see.

"Ellis! Ellis!" I pushed the other two aside, kneeling down at his brutally damaged body. "Ellis, wake up! Please! Answer me!" I beg, pulling at his very blood-stained 'Bull Shifters' shirt. I saw heavy eyelids struggle to life as he gasped for air.

"Jo. I-I'll be okay. Pills...I...I need pills." With tears of relief in my eyes, I handed him the bottle of pills and helped him up, which was good because that meant his energy was slowly restoring.

"You've really prepared yourself for this zombie apocalypse, huh?" Coach smiled at me with impress.

"Hell yeah! Its not fun and games. Sure, its the best shooting range of all time," I winked at Ellis, "but its also the most dangerous. You must be ready for anything." I suddenly saw Ellis collapse again from the corner of my eye. "Ellis!" I shout in surprise, holding him up. "He's terribly injured...I think he might need surgery."

"Well then, get to it, Miss Prepared." Nick smirked.

"I'm not a surgeon, Nick. We're gonna have to call for help."

"In the middle of nowhere?"

"When we were parachuting, I noticed a city past the woods. I'm sure it has a hospital. We just need to get through." He sighed.

"Alright. Just let me get my-". Nick turned and stared in disbelief at the house, half-standing, thanks to the Tank. "Jacket." He said behind gritted teeth.

"You can sleep in another room, Nick." I said nicely, though I was purposely trying to piss him off even more. I don't know why, but its just too amusing. Surely enough, i did.

"Just sleep in another room? I worked hard on this room to make it my own space and I'm not gonna let some dumb Tank fuck it up for me!" Silence. Then, I really let him have it. "Nick, you may have a bachelor pad, but there aren't any girls anywhere...single ones at least." I gave Ellis a kiss on the cheek while letting him lean on me. I saw Nick twitch.

"You know what Jo? I could have asked you to marry me if this hick over here wasn't drooling all over you back at the Parish!" He gasped, his face turning red a bit. Ellis sighed, feeling almost bad for Nick...until he called him off.

"Y'don't have to call me a hick, man." I looked at Ellis and whispered in his ear. At first, he hesitated, but then he nodded. With Coach giving Ellis support, I walked up to Nick, who had his back turned to us. I touched his shoulder lightly and he peeked over.

"What?" He asked me with a hint of anger and embarrassment in his voice.

"I never realized...that you felt that way." In my mind, I wanted to say "you're like a pre-teen boy who has a hard time expressing his emotions." I'm not gonna lie, I wanted to tease him badly...but I know I couldn't do that at the moment. He turned around to stare at me with eyes of sadness...but not like he was crying. "Thank you giving Ellis and I a chance." I gave him a small kiss on the lips: not so much a peck, but not as long as a make-out. I could feel him resist the urge to kiss back.

"It's alright." He said when we broke the kiss. "I had to deal with a lot of painful shit, but for some reason, this one's a little tough."

"Love is powerful." I told him. "Cheesy, I know." Then, for a moment, I actually saw Nick smile. A real smile, not one of those typical smirks that he would always give.

"Well, that was fun, but now I think we should save Ellis over here." Coach interrupted.

"Oh, right." Nick said, about to run to the farmhouse to get his jacket. I'll be honest, its kinda weird seeing him with just his blue button-down shirt; he just doesn't look like his usual conman self. I can't really explain it, but its just the way he looks that kinda throws me off. Anyway, right before he entered the house, it started to tilt towards where he was.

"Nick! Get away from the house!" I yelled, sprinting before it was too late. Nick looked at me with a puzzled expression, then his eyes widened when he saw me coming at him. In one quick reflex, I threw him onto my back and ran as best as I could away from the falling house.

"What the hell, Jo! Put me down!" He yelled.

"I'm trying to save your ass again!" I yelled sarcastically.

"From what?" He asked, the tone in his voice lightening up a bit. When I put him down by the other two men, I positioned his body towards the farmhouse. It toppled over and I held out my arm to indicate the rubble.

"That." I said, with a look of 'I-told-you-so'.

"Thanks, but I still need my jacket." I sighed, face-palming as he ran to the rubble, trying to dig out his jacket.

"Jo..." Ellis suddenly said to me, wincing between breaths. Coach switched so Ellis could lean on me. "Don't...we have an emergency...radio in the barn?" Suddenly remembering having one, I asked Coach to contact CEDA.

"CEDA? Girl, that fucking rescue company did us shit!" There was more silence.

"Give me the radio. I'll talk to them." I said with a tiny hint of anger in my voice. I felt Ellis caressing my arm as Coach went in to grab the radio.

"Thank you...for helping me out, Jo."

"Well, I'm your future wife, right? I gotta take care of you like how you took care of me back at the bridge." He kissed my head as Coach came back with the radio. Taking it from him, I hit the talk button.

"CEDA! This is Blackhawk! I am at a farmhouse outside Mercy City."

"How do you know its Mercy City?" Coach asked me. I pointed to a sign that read 'Mercy City. 5 miles.' Suddenly, a voice responded.

"Blackhawk? We thought you were dead! Are you okay?"

"My right leg got pretty banged up, but I'm alright now. Listen, I'm with three other guys and one of them is badly injured. We need assistance."

"I can send a chopper on top of Mercy Hospital."

"Perfect. We're on our way."

"Good luck, Blackhawk."

"Thanks." I responded, giving the radio back to Coach.

"'Blackhawk'?" He asked me, putting the radio away.

"It's a codename. I work for CEDA." Coach swallowed hard a bit, regretting what he said about CEDA doing jack shit.

"Also...you mentioned...a leg injury?" Ellis asked me.

"Oh, that. Well, about two months ago, when I was in a CEDA chopper, the engine failed unexpectedly." Nick, who found his jacket, dusted it off and overheard the conversation as he walked toward us.

"Woah, woah, woah. You worked for crappy-ass CEDA?" Nick asked me with a bit of disappointment in his voice.

"No, I worked for FEMA." I said sarcastically. "Anyway, none of us had parachutes and we were nosediving. I told myself I wasn't gonna die. Not that day. So, with the right timing, I jumped off the chopper and I barely survived. I still remember seeing my friends get killed by the impact. It was quite devastating, but I knew that I had no time to grieve. I had many small wounds that went away quickly, but my right leg was dislocated and had a big shard of glass stuck in it. Acting fast, I had to crack it back into place, remove the shard, and stitch up my leg." I lifted up my pant leg to reveal a five-inch scar on the side of my calf.

"My god, Jo. You just gained more respect from me." Coach patted my back.

"Welcome to the club, Jo." Nick also patted my back.

"Wow. I'm surprised that I...never saw that when we-" Ellis caught himself. Nick and Coach shuddered a bit and I giggled.

"Anyway," Nick tried to change the conversation, "what are we doing now?"

"We got to go to Mercy Hospital in Mercy City, through the woods."

"Fucking lovely," Nick muttered to himself, "more crap on my suit."

"Suck it up and let's go." I said, patting his back hard and lifting Ellis up on my back.


	4. Chapter 3

JO POV

"Shit! Why do we have to go through these goddamn woods? Isn't there another way to this damn city?" Nick complained as we moved through branches and tall weeds.

"There is, but this is the quickest way. And the sooner we give Ellis some medical help, the better...for all of us." I replied, holding Ellis on my back tightly.

"How is helping Ellis good for us? Other than him helping us survive...on occasion."

"When we get to the chopper, we'll be taken to CEDA HQ, where we should be safe." That shut Nick up for the rest of our journey through the woods, until he stepped on some zombie corpses.

"What the - seriously, jo? You put the zombies we shot here?"

"Well, where else could I do? Leave them on our doorstep to rot and stink up the house?" Nick wrinkled his nose in disgust at the rotting flesh, stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

"...You could have at least put them in something so we're not stepping on open corpses."

"Well excuse me for not having common curtesy, Mr. Jackass." I snapped.

"When you two are done easing your sexual tensions, we've got to run to that hospital!" Coach interrupted. Ellis gave him a 'you-shut-your-mouth' look on his weak face. Then, he tugged on the back of my shirt.

"Horde." He whispered in my ear, followed by a cough.

"Shit." I muttered to myself. "Guys! A horde's coming! I'm gonna find safety for Ellis!" I sprinted as best as I could, holding Ellis tightly. I heard gunshots from the two men behind me as I kept on going. Soon after, I spotted the other side of the woods. "We're almost there! Keep shooting!" I shouted, breaking through the last few branches to freedom. The last zombie from the horse stumbled to the ground with my bullet holes in it's chest.

"We...made it!" Ellis exclaimed with pain and excitement.

"Yep. Hold on, Ellis. We're almost to safety." He wrapped himself around me as best as he could. "This way!" I yelled to the rest of the group behind me, running down the block toward the glowing building. It wasn't until I reached the front door that I noticed blood was leaking down from my shoulder. Following the trail to see where it came from, I traced it to Ellis' head. "Ellis! You're bleeding!" I told him, worried as hell. I felt him put his hand to his head, then showed me his hand full of blood. My heart sank as I set him down gently. Coach and Nick were at my side, concerned as well...actually Nick was hiding it, but I knew he cared. "I need one of your first aid kits. I used mine on him earlier." Coach willingly gave me his and I began wrapping Ellis' head and waist, the most vital parts on his body. I heard Ellis cough weakly. "I know." I told him, with complete worry and care. "Just hang in there. We're almost to medical help." There was still some materials left in the health kit when I finished.

"So, is he going to make it?" Coach asked me, looking over Ellis' bloodstained body.

"His internal organs are a bit damaged. We're gonna have to hurry. He's rapidly losing blood." I handed Coach his health kit back, picking up Ellis again on my back.

"Jo..." I heard him gasp.

"Yes? What is it? You've got to hang on Ellis!"

"...Hurry." He said with a gasp and faint whisper in his voice. Then I felt his body go limp on my back. I knew he just passed out which means we're running out of time.

"We have to hurry!" I told the two. "Let's go!" I charged through the doors, running up many flights of stairs. Keeping Ellis secure on my back with one arm, I shot my way through infected with nothing but my Desert Eagle. We forged on, fighting hard. To be honest, I was surprised we even made it this far. Though of course I jinxed myself because once we made it to the building, there was no chopper. Coach gave me the radio he carried, putting on a 'I-told-you-CEDA-sucks' look on his face. Rolling my eyes, I took the radio from him and pressed the 'talk' button. "Hello! This is Blackhawk! We're at the top of Mercy Hospital's building. We were told that we would be rescued by a chopper here."

"Blackhawk, this is Chopper 178. We are almost at the hospital. Defend yourself until we land."

"Please hurry. One man is down and out!"

"Affirmative. Chopper 178 out." I handed the radio back to Coach.

"See? Told you CEDA can be helpful."

"Lucky chance. This is the first time they're actually saving our asses." I set Ellis down gently at my feet, taking out my sub-machine gun.

"Well, until they get here, we gotta defend ourselves. So get ready." In the corner of my eye, I saw a hunter crouch. In a flash, I aimed and fired, killing that son of a bitch mid-pounce. Suddenly, I heard the many roars of zombie. Great, the sound triggered the horde. I should have expected that many sound-sensitive infected would come. "Let's kill these bitches." I said darkly, reloading my weapon. I was right by Ellis, protecting him from harm. Coach covered the other end as Nick stayed by Ellis and I.

"We have to watch out for special infected. If more than one of us gets hurt, we're screwed. Although, I'm pretty sure if just one of us is down, we're all screwed anyway." Nick muttered to me.

"Thanks for staying so confident, Mr. Optimistic." I said sarcastically, shooting a smoker coughing behind me.

"Just tellin' ya, sweetie." He replied, just as smug.

For the past 10 minutes we were killing zombies like mad, to the point where no more common infected was found. That's when a familiar rumble was heard.

"Not now." I whined to myself, taking out a grenade launcher. I looked to see if I had any 'nades. Only one. Shit, I forgot to grab more back at the barn. "I only have one grenade. We have to get the Tank to move to the edge of the building." I called out to Nick and Coach.

"I'll protect Ellis." Nick said, reloading his weapon. "That way you have a better shot at the Tank." Nodding, I ran by Coach's side. The Tank appeared from the doorway leading up to the rooftop, bursting the door open.

"Fire! Now!" I screamed, followed by sounds of mini-explosions from their guns. The Tank struggled a bit, but the impact from the bullets were not powerful enough to move him back. Slowly, he climbed up onto our platform where the chopper was supposed to land and sent Coach and I flying in one punch. Conveniently, I landed right by Ellis, who was regaining consciousness; but only just a bit.

"Jo-" he said weakly. "Be...careful."

"I will, Ellis. Just hang in there." I held his hand tightly. Coach got up, shooting beside Nick until they ran out of ammo. Thinking fast, I got up, picked up Ellis, and we lured the Tank to the edge of the building.

"Jo! You're gonna have to fire now!" Coach yelled, taking Ellis from over my shoulder. I aimed my launcher and fired, not wasting any time. The explosion hit me in recoil and sent me flying backwards. I felt a stinging sensation in my right leg and warm liquid started trailing down my calf. Fortunately, the Tank stumbled, lost it's balance, and fell off the edge. We heard a huge crash below and that's when we knew he was dead. Nick ran to me, followed by Coach with Ellis in his arms.

"You did well, kid." He smirked as he helped me up. I smirked back, trying my best to ignore the pain.

"...J-Jo." I saw Ellis turn his head slowly towards me, breaking into a small, weak smile. "Helicopter's here." I looked behind me, spotting the copter in the distance.

"Yup. We're finally gonna be okay." I smiled sweetly, stroking Ellis' hair. That's when I noticed his cap was gone. "Ellis. Your-"

"I'd...rather have...you." He forced out his words behind winces. Coach looked away, like he was about to cry from joy. Nick pretended to gag. Squeezing Ellis' hand, we watched as the chopper came to a landing in front of us.


	5. Epilogue

JO POV

I finished stitching up the truck on Ellis' cap and placed it on his head.

"Well, it sure as hell took me a while to stitch this with my clumsy hands, but I finally did it." I placed the needle and thread down on the kitchen table as Ellis gave me a kiss of thanks. With his help, he lifted me up from my seat and I gasped.

"Are you alright?" Ellis asked me, placing a hand on my stomach.

"Yeah. Little One's just kicking again." I put my hand over his. Ellis smiled, taking my hand and leading me into our bedroom. "Where's Nick and Coach?"

"They're playing pool in the basement."

"Typical." I chuckled, rubbing my 6-month stomach to calm the Little One down. As we entered our room, I laid down on our bed, examining my blistered and scarred leg. As Ellis took off his shirt, I stared at the scares and marks on his body. "Thank you CEDA surgeons." I prayed. "And thank you Lord for helping CEDA find a cure for this infection. Without your help, we would have never survived, I would have never met Ellis, and I would not be living in this nice house in the Hamptons right now." I actually lived on Long Island when I was little, so it was nice moving back to my old hometown. "And one last thing, Lord. Say hi to Rochelle for me and the others. I know that Coach still misses her."

"It's so hot." Ellis interrupted my prayer as he wiped his sweating torso and head with his shirt. Sighing, I finished my prayer.

"Yes, well install air conditioning then." I purposely sounded like a nagging wife.

"Funny." He smirked, climbing into bed with me. I rested my head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around me and my stomach. I couldn't help but smile; I'm living with two new friends and an amazing husband with a new baby on the way. Finally, life's gonna be normal again.


End file.
